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Before Communist: Yenching University Female Students School Life

A dance performance by female students of Yenching

By Lucy Zhou

January 11, 2026
1:31 am
Los Angeles, CA

Yenching University was a renowned missionary university established in Beijing in the early 20th century by four American and British Christian churches. Under the historical conditions of the time, it played a significant exemplary and guiding role in the modernization of Chinese education. Because it more directly introduced Western modern educational models in many aspects, including its system, institutions, plans, curriculum, methods, and even rules and regulations, it had a profound impact on the education sector and society, becoming an indispensable chapter in the history of modern Chinese education and making an indelible contribution to Chinese higher education. However, after the Communist took over the power in the 1952, it launched nationwide educational reform of higher education institutions, Yenching University was dissolved. The Yenching University Law School and Sociology

The Yenching University Law School and Sociology Department were merged into Beijing Institute of Political Science and Law (now China University of Political Science and Law), the engineering departments were merged into Tsinghua University, and the humanities and science departments were merged into Peking University, with Peking University relocating to the former Yenching University campus, “Yan Garden.”

The first president of Yenching University was the famous John Leighton Stuart.

The east-west axis of Yenching University is aligned with the Yuquan Mountain Pagoda. From the alumni gate, across the stone arch bridge and the ornamental pillars (taken from the ruins of the Old Summer Palace), the square courtyard is flanked by the nine-bay, hip-and-gable-roofed buildings of the Mu Building and the Democracy Building.

The main building is the hip-and-gable-roofed Beigong Building (administration building), flanked by the Religious Building and the library. Continuing eastward along the central axis, it extends to the Sixi Pavilion in Weiming Lake, with the Boya Pagoda and Linhu Pavilion on the lake shore.

The eastern part is divided by Weiming Lake into the northern men’s campus and the southern women’s campus. The men’s campus includes four men’s dormitories (De, Cai, Jun, and Bei) and the Hua’s Gymnasium. The women’s campus, along a north-south axis, includes the Shi Building, the North and South Pavilions, women’s dormitories, and the Bao’s Gymnasium.

Today, let’s follow these old photos into the women’s campus of Yenching University, into the dormitories of the female students of that time, and take a look at their private rooms.

The study area in the dormitory. Such spacious and dedicated study spaces in dormitories are something that even our universities today cannot achieve.

The female students’ dormitories at that time were in no way inferior to today’s apartment-style dormitories. The exterior imitated classical Chinese architecture as much as possible, while the interior used the most advanced equipment of the time: heating, hot water, flush toilets, bathtubs, drinking fountains, etc.

A reading and relaxation room specifically designed for students in the dormitory. I wonder how many student dormitories in our so-called modern universities today have such facilities?

Asking questions to a foreign teacher. Now you know why university students’ English was so good back then, many classes were taught directly by foreign teachers.